LEGO® The Hobbit: An Unexpected Gathering

People working at Lego are awesome. This guys have taken the Bilbo Baggings home and created a miniature model of it,  but not happy with that, they have recreated that same lego mini model into a real size piece using nothing but 2,1 million Lego bricks.  This set among other Lego sets featuring The Hobbit movie are  available on Amazon US / ES / JP

Sustainable Urbanism Bibliography

I attended to a Sustainable Urbanism class in University of Puerto Rico this semester with Dr. Gabriel Moreno Viqueira. Here the bibliography we have been working with:





The Sustainable Urban Development Reader by Wheeler, S.y Beatly, T.

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Publisher: Routledge; 2 edition (October 20, 2008)
Language: English
512 pages
ISBN-10: 041545381X
ISBN-13: 978-0415453813
Available on Amazon: US / ES /JP





Green Urbanism by Timothy Beatly

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Publisher: Island Press; 1 edition (December 1, 1999)
Language: English
491 pages
ISBN-10: 1559636823
ISBN-13: 978-1559636827
Available on Amazon: US / ES /JP









Once There Were Greenfields: How Urban Sprawl is Undermining America’s Environment, Economy and Social Fabric by F. K. Benfield, D.T.T. Chen, M.D. Raimi

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Publisher: Natural Resource Defense (March 24, 1999)
228 pages
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1893340171
ISBN-13: 978-1893340176

Available on Amazon: US / ES / JP






Transit Villages in the 21st Century by Michael Bernick and Robert Cervero

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Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies (October 1, 1996)
Language: English
Hardcover: 387 pages
ISBN-10: 0070054754
ISBN-13: 978-0070054752

Available on Amazon: US / ES / JP






Sprawl Costs: The Economic Impacts of Unchecked Development 

by Robert Burchell, Anthony Downs, Sahan Mukherji, Barbara McCann

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Publisher: Island Press; 1 edition (June 29, 2005)
Language: English
208 pages
ISBN-10: 1559635304
ISBN-13: 978-1559635301

Available on Amazon: US / ES / JP






The Next American Metropolis by Peter Calthorpe

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Publisher: Princeton Architectural Press, 1993
Language: English
176 pages
ISBN-10: 1878271687
ISBN-13: 978-1878271686

Available on Amazon: US / ES / JP



Aesthetics, Well-Being and Health: Essays Within Architecture and Environmental Aesthetics (Ethnoscapes) by Birgit Cold (Editor)

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Publisher: Ashgate Pub Ltd (March 2002)
Language: English
321 pages
ISBN-10: 0754618560
ISBN-13: 978-0754618560

Available on Amazon: US / ES / JP





The Smart Growth Manual by Andres Duany

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Publisher: McGraw-Hill Professional; 1 edition (October 15, 2009)
Language: English
240 pages
ISBN-10: 0071376755
ISBN-13: 978-0071376754

Available on Amazon: US / ES / JP






This Land: The Battle over Sprawl and the Future of America by

Anthony Flint

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Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006
Publisher: The Johns Hopkins University Press; Updated edition (August 1, 2012)
Language: English
312 pages
ISBN-10: 1421407817
ISBN-13: 978-1421407814

Available on Amazon: US / ES / JP




The Ethical Function of Architecture by Karsten Harris

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Publisher: The MIT Press (July 3, 1998)
Language: English
424 pages
ISBN-10: 026258171X
ISBN-13: 978-0262581714

Available on Amazon: US / ES / JP



The Death and Life of Great American Cities, 1960 by Jane Jacobs

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Publisher: Modern Library; 50 Anviversary edition (September 13, 2011)
Language: English
640 pages
ISBN-10: 0679644334
ISBN-13: 978-0679644330

Available on Amazon: US / ES / JP




Green Cities: Urban Growth And the Environment by Matthew Kanh

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Publisher: Brookings Institution Press (September 1, 2006)
Language: English
170 pages
ISBN-10: 0815748159
ISBN-13: 978-0815748151

Available on Amazon: US / ES / JP







Asphalt Nation: How the Automobile took Over America and How We Can Take It Back by

Jane Holtz Kay

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Publisher: University of California Press; Reprint edition (October 1, 1998)
Language: English
440 pages
ISBN-10: 0520216202
ISBN-13: 978-0520216204

Available on Amazon: US / ES / JP






The New Urbanism: Toward an Architecture of Community by Peter Katz

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Publisher: McGraw-Hill Professional; 1 edition (October 1, 1993)
Language: English
288 pages
ISBN-10: 0070338892
ISBN-13: 978-0070338890

Available on Amazon: US / ES / JP


Home from Nowhere: Remaking our Everyday World for the 21st Century by James Howard Kunstler

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Publisher: Touchstone Press; 1ST edition (March 26, 1998)
Language: English
320 pages
ISBN-10: 0684837374
ISBN-13: 978-0684837376

Available on Amazon: US / ES / JP






Urban Design: The American Experience by Jon Lang

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Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (February 25, 1994)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0471285420
ISBN-13: 978-0471285427
528 pages

Available on Amazon: US / ES / JP





Environmental Aesthetics: Ideas, Politics and Planning by J. Douglas Porteous

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Publisher: Routledge (August 19, 1996)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0415137691
ISBN-13: 978-0415137690
312 pages

Available on Amazon: US / ES / JP






Ecourbanismo by Miguel Rouano

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Publisher: Watson-Guptill Pubns (May 1998)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 8425217237
ISBN-13: 978-8425217234
192 pages

Available on Amazon: US / ES / JP





The City After the Automobile: An Architects’ Vision by Moshe Safde

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Publisher: Westview Press (October 9, 1998)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0813335450
ISBN-13: 978-0813335452
200 pages

Available on Amazon: US / ES / JP







Other readings:

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The Tragedy of the Commons by Garret Harding
Science vol. 16, 13 December 1968

“Environmental Ethics and the Built Environment” by Roger King
Env. Ethics, 22:115-131, 2000

Beretta xp4 storm

Just in case bad guys come to town...My friends in Indiana have bought a Beretta xp4 storm. I never shot a gun like this before. I like the way the shell comes out of the frame.

SHORT FILM | Life Starring Neil the Snail

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Puerto Rico | 2012 | 8 min | Color | 16:9

A film by

Ioannes Busca

Music Composed by

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

‘Symphony No 40 in G Minor’

Shot in Puerto Rico

December 2012

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Neil, a snail from El Yunque rainforest in Puerto Rico, brings us a unique interpretation of Mozart’s Symphony No.40, in its first and last ever filmed performance.

Despite the overwhelming success, Neil renounced to its performing career and returned to its life in the forest. Shot for a cinema class in University of Puerto Rico.

Visit the web: https://aaandnn.com/video/life/

LINCOLN directed by Steven Spielberg

LINCOLN AN AMEROICAN JOURNEY;  The making of of the film

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SOUNDWORK COLLECTION: LINCON SOUND DESIGN by Ben Burtt.

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The Hobbit Production Report #9

One of the most anticipated movies of the year, The Hobbit is almost ready to hit theaters all over the world. While final postproduction takes place in Australia, this great behind the scenes production reports gave us an idea of the scale of making a movie as ambitious as this. This videos are great pieces film education as well as inspiration for future filmmakers.

NEWS | Introducing Chronotomo: Otomo Katsuhiro Chronology

For a long time, we've wanted to do a project with a big timeline of Katsuhiro Otomo's works. It has always mesmerize us the amount and diversity of work this artist has. Our goal is to collect all the publications and releases of Japanese and international editions of anything and everything Otomo has ever collaborated in. This is going to take a lot of time, but we plan to do it slowly, with no pressure. Now that facebook has a pretty useful interface, in which you can add an event and locate it in a certain date, everything is going to be much easier. People that in the past have been making data bases of Otomo's works, like the Japanese language website Apple Paradise and the French Otomo Free are going to make things much easier for us. We hope to build a good reference in english for everyone interested in Katsuhiro Otomo's work. Stay tuned for more.

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2013-I-22 update: We started as a facebook page but now the main website of the ChronOtomo project is this: http://chronotomo.aaandnn.com

FLIGHT directed by Robert Zemeckis

It's been 12 years since last live action film directed by Robert Zemeckis who has been mostly focused on animation projects such as The Polar Express, A Christmas Carol and Beowulf in the last decade. It's always nice to see him back in front of live action features. I hope this movie is the first one in a long list of future projects. For what I have seen in the screen he is still in shape to offer the audiences the kind of quality movies he did in the eighties and the nineties. Classics such a s Back To The Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, Forrest Gump and Cast Away are on my list of all time favorite movies. Stay hungry, stay foolish Robert Zemeckis. We are eager to see what you are going to show us next time.

Behind the Scenes with Jim Henson

There is a ton of awesome stuff on Jim Henson Company official YouTube Channel. I specially enjoyed this collection of memorable behind the scene clips. 

Every time I see the muppets, it comes to my mind that vast majority of the the animation produced now a days is created by computer. Without a doubt, the work of the people working in that industry has become more and more boring and tedious everyday. The final results maybe are as good or even better than before as far as the visuals are concerned and from a technical point of view, thanks all the advances in digital filmmaking. But, it's always refreshing to look back and see how those guys worked in the past, and despite the technical limitations, they seem to be having so much fun while creating works that will remain in the popular collective imagination forever.

Those works were created with so much love and passion that it's hard to find something comparable created for young audiences this days. Jim Henson's works definitively played in another league, where children and adults could seat in front of a TV and enjoy a show together. I consider each of this shows a a small piece of art conceived to be broadcasted.  George Lucas' Star wars started this way too, with puppets and handcrafted physical stuff,  but over the years, it has evolved, pushed by  new digital technologies that offer the creator almost limitless possibilities, into a digital working environment in which physical interaction with things is almost not neccesary anymore.

At the same time, there is still hope. There is people around making things the traditional way. Not necessarily moved by nostalgia of the old days, but because is a more natural, more entertaining and funny way to create things. A way that allows laughing and having fun while working together. A much more exciting way of working than seating in a cubicle in front of a screen, trying to make the digital as fun as the real thing. I'm confident that we will never forget the way of doing things this way, and it's a matter of time the audiences to realize that the quality of creations is intimately linked with the way they have been conceived and created. It's not about the quality of the image, the visually stunning camera moves or fancy visual effects that make a show stand out,  it's the joy infused by their creators while making it that has a reflection in the final product.

We are humans after all, and deep in our soul, every one of us realizes if something was created with joy or despair, and we can never forget that this state of mind will have a reflection on whatever we do. If we start working and creating in a more boring, more automated way, the quality of what we do will suffer, maybe not in an apparent way at first, but this McDonaldlized product will have a no lasting impact on nobody with a soul. That its why Jim Henson and the company and works he created are one of the best legacy of 20th century TV and cinema entertainment industry and for sure they will continue remembering us forever that work and life can be lived with joy.

Steve Wozniak at TEDx

5 Killer Canon Lenses by SMAPP

There are so many lenses in the market, that it's hard to figure out which ones would be better for each occasion. Here a list created by the guys from SMAPP with a must have lenses to shoot video with Canon DSLR cameras. 

●Canon EF 24-105mm f/4L IS USM
●Canon EF 14mm f/2.8L II USM
●Canon EF 135mm f/2.0L USM
●Canon 1.4x EF Extender III
●Canon EF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6L IS USM

Jurasic Park back in the big Screen

Steven Spielberg's epic movie, Jurassic Park, is coming back to theaters digitally restored and in 3D just in time to commemorate the films 20th anniversary. The release date is April 5, 2013 and the trailer and the poster have been released this week.  The ticket will be worth the money if it's only to listen again to John Williams glorious soundtrack. 

WordPress All-in-one for Dummies

Every time I have a good idea that I want to develop, the hardest part is to find people that complement the project and go make it. Every time I start a technology related project I thought on my brother as a partner as he knows so much about everything Internet related but as we are always far away from each other and he is always busy with work, the projects almost die before they start. So then I seat bacck and it seem I will need to learn myself everything I need to learb so that I can be able to develop my project. Even I know that to achieve greatness on whatever you do you have to be focus on something precise, I found that this is harder and harder every time, as ther eis always new stuff to learn. If you want to draw you have to deal with new digital techniques, if you want to make a film the same but with even more degrees of complexity and if you want to make a web project...well...I am going to start reading this book: WordPress All-in-one for Dummies. WordPress seams a pretty powerful tool for  development interesting web content. I hope not  die trying.

WordPress All-in-One For Dummies 

Lisa Sabin-Wilson

912 pages / English
Publisher: For Dummies

1 edition (April 19, 2011)
ISBN-10: 0470877014
ISBN-13: 978-0470877012

Available on Amazon

US / ES / JP

Disney bought Lucasfilm...

...and with it Industrial Light and Magic, Skywalker Sound, LucasArts and of course the rights of Star Wars and Indiana Jones franchises among others.  George Lucas seems to be retiring and Star Wars episode VII has been announced due to be released on 2015. Read the official press note by The Walt Disney Company here.

Moonrise Kingdom on DVD

I watched Moonrise Kingdom, the latest movie by Wes Anderson on DVD. To leran more about the film visit Moonrise Kingdom in YouTube.

Between Frames

BETWEEN FRAMES: THE MAGIC BEHIND STOP MOTION ANIMATION is an exhibition held by The Walt Disney family museum between September 27, 2012 and April 28, 2013. San Francisco has always been know for having such a film related story as can be seen in Fog City Mavericks documentary. I just hope to be able to fly there in Christmas time with my brother and see the exposition in person.

Doris Kearns Goodwin

It's great how you stumble upon with amazing stuff in Internet that you would never thought about. The last couple of days I have  been un subscribing from my friends status updates on Facebook, I believe knowing too much personal stuff of peoples life isn't healthy at all. On the other hand I've added many interesting pages to the social netwok's feed, NASA and The New York Times among others. So now every time I log in to Facebook I have a mix of really interesting stories and news instead of food and travel pictures. Thanks to this change, I found this interview With J.K.Rowling, author of Harry Potter. One of the question was this:

What was the last truly great book you read?

“Team of Rivals,” by Doris Kearns Goodwin. I lived in it the way that you do with truly great books; putting it down with glazed eyes and feeling disconcerted to find yourself in the 21st century. I met the author at a reception in the American Embassy in London last year, and I was so excited that I was bobbing up and down on the spot like a 5-year-old.

I haven't read Harry Potter, nor watched the movies but it's always interesting to know what do famous writers read. I knew nothing about Doris Kearns Goodwin so I google it, and one of the first results was this TED talk she gave back in 2008 about Abraham Lincoln and Lyndon B. Johnson. What a discovery.

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin

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944 pages

Published by Simon & Schuster; First Edition edition (October 25, 2005)

ISBN-10: 0684824906

ISBN-13: 978-0684824901

Available on Amazon:

US / ES / JP

Walter Murch Side by Side swipes

I have finally got a chance to watch Side by Side a documentary that explains meticulously how  the transition from film to digital cinema happened during the past decades. Among the swipes selection you can continue finding out interesting commentaries like those ones by Water Murch.

RED & ADOBE

The future of cinema seems to be digital. Analog film days are over for many of the industry's best know directors, not to mention the newcomers. RED cameras are playing a mayor role in this revolution, and specially consumer brands like Canon that are creating tools not only for the professionals but for semi-pros and amateurs as well.

In this  interview between Ted Schilowitz from RED and Jim Guerard from ADOBE from latest NAB 2012 that took place in Las Vegas, we can see how there is no better way to sell a product than telling people real stories. It's the smartest marketing strategy possible, stories sell if they are real and convincing. I have seen many promotional interviews  like these in the past, with directors like Peter Jackson and Steven Soderbergh, and they all seem so really motivating to me.

TED: Shimon Schocken

This talk by Shimon Schocken is one of the TED TALKS I have enjoyed most. I find that creating a  computer from scratch and learning the basics of how stuff works is so pleasing. I remember my first year in architecture school when we studied the greatest architects of the 20th century. There was a guy called Mendelson who made some iconic department stores on the 20's for a brand called Schocken wich was precisely founded by Shimon's grandfather. Here a gallery of Drawings and pics of Mendelson's  architecture for the Schocken department stores.

 

'You got to put the past behind you before you can move on'

This memorable scene from 1994 movie Forrest Gump directed by Robert Zemeckis is an always inspiring piece of cinema.

JFK - "We choose to go to the Moon"

50 years ago on september 12, 1962, John F. Kennedy, president of the United States gave a speech that would inspire many generations to come, of not only Americans, but citizens from all over the world. Here the article form Gizmodo.

Laputa Soundtrack

The best music to start the day. From Hayao Miyazaki's  Tenkû no Shiro Laputa (Laputa castle in the sky) composed and arranged by Joe Hisaishi.

Stanley Kubrick's One-Point Perspective

A great video by Kogonada that shows the mastery that Stanley Kubrick had composing his films with the  use of symetry and the one-point perspective.

Neil Armstrong dies at age 82

NASA' tribute video to Neil Armstrong the first man in the moon who passed away today.

R.I.P. Scott & Scott

I discovered this classic thanks to the soundtrack of Forrest Gump. Today, the announced  that Scott Mckenzie died last Saturday at home.

Rise of the Video Game

Yesterday I watched a five series documentary called Rise of the Video Game produced by Discovery Channel. The series aired originally on November 2007 and depicts the history of video games from the fifties to this days. Here the editorial review:

The video game revolution has been under way for decades, progressing from simple amusements created in the 1950s to an all-pervasive force in today's popular culture that rivals — and will perhaps soon surpass — film and television. What began as a subculture pastime has evolved and transcended genres to become a unique form of expression impacting everything from modern warfare to interpersonal relationships.

Rise of the Video Game is a comprehensive and progressive exploration of the past, present and future of video games and video gamers. From the early days of Pong to today's ever-popular Halo 2, and from Atari 2600 to Nintendo to PlayStation,Rise of the Video Game tells the story of the people, the ideologies and the technology behind video games and how they have exploded into a cultural phenomenon. The evolution of gaming has seen the pendulum move from the days of games replicating society, to society replicating games. Featuring interviews with giants in the gaming industry of yesterday and today, this five-part series examines the evolution of the video game and its cultural impact on the world of entertainment today.

William Moggridge Dies at 69

Bill Moggridge, director of the Smithsonian’s Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum and an outspoken advocate for the value of design in everyday life, died September 8th, 2012, following a battle with cancer. He was 69. Designer of the first laptop computer and co-founder of the renowned innovation and design firm, IDEO, Bill pioneered interaction design and integrated human factors into the design of computer software and hardware.

via: http://www.cooperhewitt.org/remembering-bill/life-work

New Dragon Ball movie coming soon

Akira Toriyama himself has written a message to introduce the latest Dragon Ball animated movie that will be released in march 2012. What's exciting about this new movie is the involvement in the script by the original author of Dragon Ball. It seems that after the disappointing Hollywood live action version of Dragon Ball, he decided it was about time to return to his characters and present them the way they were meant to be seen. It's soo nice to read some words of the original author promising us some good old times.

Dragon Ball as envisioned by his author ended with the final chapter published in Weekly Shonen Jump magazine back in 1995. Since then, the series has keep on growing as successful franchises do. Shortly after its conclusion, the animated series continued for a while with the adventures narrated in Dragon Ball GT and video games have continue to hit the modern video game consoles for al this years too, buut it was a long time we didn't have a brand new Dragon Ball movie.

Say tunned in the official website. If you really want to dive deep into Dragon Ball, check out Kanzenshuu a website born from the recent merge of Kanzentai and DaizenX two of the most complete Dragon Ball english sources out there. I recently discovered this topic about animation directors involved in the original series aired in the 80's and the 90's. Fantastic.

Lebron James: More Than a Game

Yesterday I saw the 2009 released documentary about the journey of Lebron James and his team mates starting in their school days and ending up becoming national High School  champions playing with the Irish from their hometown: Akron, Ohio.

SIDE BY SIDE directed by Chris Kenneally

Directed by Chris Kenneally comes a great documentary that deals with the transition from analog  to digital film that is taking place in the film business. Director such as James Cameron, David Fincher, George Lucas and David Lynch among others offer their point of view of this technological revolution that started a decade ago and still is on debate. Tribeca is showing a daily video series featuring clips that didn't make the final cut. The movie is due to release theatrically on August 17th and on video on demand on August 22nd.

New Solid State Drive for my Laptop

Some days ago, I came back to my hometown and I took some time to make some changes in my HP6710b laptop. I decided to change the 500GB Hard Disk Drive with a modern Solid State Drive. SSD prices are still high compared with and standard HDDs and as my laptop it's already pretty old I didn't wanted to invest too much on it, so I chose to buy a  OCZ Agility 3 SATA3 2.5" 120GB SSD  for about 100€ (for this price you can have a 1TB regular HDD). Therefore, the storage capacity of my laptop has been reduced from 500 to 120 GB so I externalized all my data and projects and sterted using the new SSD drive for just the OS and all the programs. As I'm always dealing with big amounts of data I'm used to carrying around many external USB HDDs so it's not going to be a big change for me anyway. In the case I buy a new  laptop soon, everything important will already be in external drives, making the migration less painful. I must say the leap to solid state drives it's worth the money. Everything goes smoother, both Windows and demanding programs such as Adobe Photoshop  and Premiere boot much faster than before. 

While doing this process, I started to think on how much data I'm actually dealing with. I'm used to work with small portable HDDs that are more expensive but need no external power. I already have them labeled from 1 to 9, four of which are 1TB, and I'm already running out of space. I also thought on back ups. I should be doing a backup of all my content just in case a Hard Drive crashes, or gets lost or stolen. To do so, I will need at least another 4 HDD of 1TB, which adds 400€ to my budget.

I hope we will all have less storage problems in the future. I just discovered a site where HDD prices and storege capacities are collected and I make this estimation: In the year 2000 a 15GB HDD's price was 150€ approx, that's the equivalent of almost two DVD9 (8,5GB DVDs) and the price per GB was 10€. In 2010 a 1TB (1000GB) HDD was 100€ that means that each GB of data cost 0.1€ and the storing space was equivalent to 125 DL DVDs or 20 Dual Layered Blu-rays. So if this progression continues I have calculated that by the year 2020 we will have 67TB Drives for about 70€ that means 0.0001€ per GB and the equivalent on 8.375 DL DVDs or 1340 Blu-Rays storing capacity. All this in a device that fits in the palm of your hand. That would happen in just 8 years. We will see...

Charlie Rose with Larry Page

DREW: THE MAN BEHIND THE POSTER directed by Erik Sharkey

Drew Struzan has been a movie poster artist for many years.  This first long documentary about him is a great retrospective filmon his career. Official site. Drew's work has been collected in multiple ocassion in books but this two are to this day the most complete ones:

Drew Struzan: Oeuvre by Dylan Struzan, Drew Struzan and George Lucas

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Hardcover: 314 pages
Publisher: Titan Books (October 4, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0857685570
ISBN-13: 978-0857685575

AVAILABILITY:

US / ES / JP

The Art of Drew Struzan by Drew Struzan

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Hardcover: 160 pages
Publisher: Titan Books (September 14, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1848566190
ISBN-13: 978-1848566194

AVAILABILITY:
US / ES / JP

Proto Anime Cut

Yesterday, I went to the PROTO ANIME CUT exhibition at La Casa Encendida in Madrid. The exhibition is focused on such talented Japanese animation artist as Hideaki Anno, Haruhiko Higami, Koji Morimoto, Hiromasa Ogura, Mamoru Oshii y Takashi Watabe. From precise background works to layouts and preliminary sketches, hundreds of drawings are shown, many for the very first time in their original form. It's specially pleasant to see the original piece of paper used to create a scene you have seen many times. Some of the drawings collected in Koji Morimoto's Orange artbook that used in the music video EXTRA with music by Ken Ishii can be seen in this exhibition.

A great catalog has been published in Spanish and English as the exhibition took place first in Berlin some months ago, the same catalog is also available in German and English on Amazon

Proto Anime Cut Archive

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Stefan Riekeles (Redactor) 

Watch a review here 

German and English edition available on Amazon:
US / ES / JP

Spanish and English edition available on Amazon:
US / ES / JP

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The image a the top is a GIF I created showing a concept drawing by Takashi Watabe from the exhibition, that transition to the final image that is shown in the  film. It's really fascinating to see how much of the actual work that goes in making animation,  that is not seen, but certainly it's necesary to create the final image. Sometimes this handmade sketches are even more impresive that the final work, as this image clearly demonstrates.

EAMES: The Architect and The Painter

A beautiful documentary about the brilliant design couple Charles and Ray Eames a completely a must-see for anyone interested in design. Official website.

Eames: The Architect and the Painter  Directed by Bill Jersey

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Studio: First Run Features
Format: Color, NTSC, Widescreen
Language: English
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
DVD Release Date: December 13, 2011
Run Time: 82 minutes

The film is already available on Amazon.
US / ES / JP

How Canon makes it's cameras

We are so used to be surrounded by high-tech gadgets with beautiful exterior shells, that we immediately forget what is going on inside them, in fact, the technology that really makes them impressive. Humankind has  achieved such advanced production and marketing methods, that any of us can use complex objects in an easy way this days. However, it's necessary every now and then to  take some time and take on account the amount of work that goes on making this products.

GUSUKO BUDORI NO DENKI directed by Gisaburo Sugii

Yesterday it was released Gusukobudori no Denki (The Life of Guskou Budori) the last film by animation director Gisaburo Sugii. The movie is based on the fairy tale "Gusuko-Budori no Denki" by Kenji Miyazawa (published in Jidobungaku magazine in April, 1932) the same author of Nokto de la Galaksia Fervojo  that was also adapted as an animation film by the same director back in 1985.

Der Fuehrer's Face

This Walt Disney studios film from year 1943 was the only Donald Duck film to receive Academy Award for best animated short film.

Bill Gates and Charlie Rose

The Chemical Brothers ELEKTROBANK directed by Spike Jonze

I have always loved this video directed by Spike Jonze in 1997.

Nike’s “Ring Maker” by Errol Morris and W+K

Nike "Ring Maker" from a52 on Vimeo.

I was surfing the a52 web and saw this great commercial paying tribute to Lebron James first NBA ring. 

Nike “Ringmaker” premiered after LeBron James and the Miami Heat won the 2011-2012 NBA Championship game against Oaklahoma City. The spot directed by Errol Morris tells the tale of LeBron’s rise to fame and the craftsman that makes the ring that will eventually garner his finger.

a52’s Paul Yacono colored the spot giving it a gritty, honest tone that reflects the storytelling that W+K and Morris were striving for.

NBA finals game 5 micro movie

LeBron James has lead the Miami Heats to the NBA championship this year. I still remember the first Nike model  with his name that I bought many years ago. I still have them semi-destroyed in a box. I guess it's time to do something with them as tribute to Lebron's journey.

Hemingway & Gellhorn

On May 28th the last film directed by Phillip Kaufman was released on HBO. As the editor Walter Murch explained in the Boston SuperMeet the movie was released in TV format because Hollywood studios thought the  audience would not be interested on a movie about Hemingway. 

Just before it's release on May 25 the director Phillip Kaufman was interviewed by Charlie Rose as part of the marketing campaign.  Interviews, clips and even a Behind the scenes featurette were also presented on the HBO official site. 

Engineer guy video: Anodizing

It's rewarding to see that one can learn so many things on the Internet in the blink of an eye. I remembered when they spoke about anodizing in a boring Materials Class in Madrid Architecture School, with just an ugly drawing projected in a bad quality transparency projector. Thankfully things have changed so much since 2003.  Let us be thankful we have Internet and great people creating interesting content.

TRIBUTE VIDEO | Javier Seguí - Reflections

Today we are introducing: c69,  a series of films featuring restless people that have contributed to make the world we know and share with us their reflections on various topics. In this first video, Javier Segui, Architect and Professor Emeritus in Madrid Architecture School shares with us his thoughts about the drawings he has done over the years. Stay tuned to more c69 in the future. 

REM KOOLHAAS: A KIND OF ARCHITECT directed by Markus Heidingsfelder

I opened an account on Arquia Caja de Arquitectos "Architects bank" and they gave me as a present this film about Rem Koolhaas on DVD. As Rem himself describes: "It's the only film about me that I have liked." The edition I have is this one by Fundación Caja de Arquitectos. It's available on other editions in Amazon all over the world.

Rem Koolhaas. A kind of Architect

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Directed by Markus Heidingsfelder
97 minutes

US / ES / JP

May the 4th be with you!

The 4th of May is always a special day for Star Wars fans, to celebrate that, here a recent interview that George Lucas gave in the Milken Institute Global Conferences. You always learn something when listening to Lucas, both on movie making and life.

Lego Cuusoo

Lego Cuusoo is the ultimate place on the internet for any Lego inventor. You can upload your creations and get supporters. If you achieve 10.000 supporters, the Lego company will review your project and if everything goes well, transform it to an official Lego product. This was the case of Daisuke's Hayabusa project. If the project is approved, a Lego designer is assigned to the idea and after redesigning it, the model its commercialized, with the 1% of the total revenues going to the original designer. Above a comparison of the Hayabusa model as created by Daisuke and the final Lego release.

Over the years  awesome projects have been selected in Lego Cuusoo. One of those projects which  has recently reached the 10.000 supporters and therefore will be review it by Lego, is this  Back To The Future Delorean set  created by M.Togami that offers the three variations of the car as seen in the Back To the Future Trilogy.

Stay tuned to Lego Cuusoo there are new entries everyday. Creator from all over the world are submitting amazing projects like this one: The Star Wars Sand-crawler: